Pattern welded blade I just finished

[Karn3]

I finished up this blade a couple of days ago. It's just a straight pattern weld, made of ban saw blade and leaf spring. It was an interesting build because the band saw material I had was very thin. I first welded up a stack of the ban saw material, which is the thinnest steel I've ever forge welded. It took a couple of attempts and I actually ruined the first billet. I stick welded the stack of band saw together, but forgot to weld it in the middle so the first stack all bowed out and the outer pieces burnt. A valuable learning experience. Once I'd wrestled the band saw steel into a decent sized billet, I cut it up and stacked it with the leaf spring to weld them together. Below is the finished blade, I just have to put a handle on it. I've got some oak I cut about a year ago which should be dry enough by now. I'm going to do that this week, so hopefully I'll post some pictures in a few days.

 

http://imgur.com/a/5R8Bh

[BM454]

Looks good. Keep it up.

[ThomasPowers]

If it bows out it means you are heating it too fast---the outer layers expand and the inner layers are lagging behind.  My suggestion is:  I like to run the coal forge up hot and then stick the cold billet in and turn off all the air and go visit the facilities, get something to drink, etc letting the billet soak and come up to an even temperature.  Then come back and wire brush it and flux it and turn on the air---well start cranking the blower.

[Geoff Keyes]

Rather than try to weld the band saw blades in to a stack and then layer it with your other material, why not do it all at once?  I make stacks out of steel in the .070 range all of the time.  If you are really worried about it, build you billet with the thick layers on the outside, so there is very little movement of the stack.

 

I would build it

 

1080

BSB

BSB
BSB
BSB
1080

 

and so on until you've got the starting count you're after.

 

Geoff

[Karn3]

After I did this, I looked into alternate methods of welding very thin strips and that is something that I came across. I am definitely going to try it next time. Welding the very thin pieces was a bit of a headache, but a useful experience.

[Rich Hale]

Alternate layers of thin and not so thin...tack weld only one end,,not down the sides or all edges. I wire my billets with tie wire every couple of inches,,,,tightly,,,start weld at tack welded end,,,cut first wire off then weld where it was,,etc. til it is all solid...if thin layers are not tacked in place they can expand without buckling.